One of the primary components of many computer systems is the backup system. The backup system is tasked with ensuring that data can be restored with minimal, if any, data loss. As technology and computing systems continue to evolve, the task of backing up the data must also evolve.
Many computing systems, for example, are changing or moving to virtualization and backup systems are attempting to adapt. However, the complexity of backing up virtualized data or virtualized systems can be influenced by many factors. The factors include the hardware on which the data is stored, network speeds and configurations, data locations, computer configurations, virtual components and implementation, size of the computing environment, scalability, or the like.
For example, many computer environments implement a large number of virtual machines. Data centers, for instance, may have a large number of virtual machines (e.g., thousands). Backing up the virtual machines in such environments can require significant computing resources. When a backup operation is initiated, the virtual machines are backed up—even when some of the virtual machines have not experienced any change or have experienced minimal change. This consumes computing resources and may consume network bandwidth unnecessarily.
Systems and methods are therefore needed that allow a backup system to intelligently backup data or to intelligently backup computing systems that include virtualized components such as virtual machines.